“Okay… keep going.” My breath catches in my throat.
“At first, I thought he was one of them. A piece of shit like the others.” Her eyes soften. “I knew you guys were in love, and I wanted to warn you, but then...” She shifts uncomfortably. “I saw him win a girl at one game, he had a pink poker chip, and she couldn't have been over seventeen. I followed him, and he took her to a bus station, gave her cash and a prepaid phone.”
I stare at her, trying to process what she's telling me. “Joe was helping them. I figured that much. I don’t know why he wouldn’t tell Liam about it.”
Mimi lifts her shoulder. “He wanted this to be his own rescue mission. He asked me to stay quiet.” Wincing, she continues, “I approached him after that. Told him what I knew, what I could do. We formed this... alliance. I'd get into the poker games more frequently, feed him information about who was bidding, but we could never find the ringleader besides Charles that you met that night on the boat.”
“You were working together!” I exclaim, pissed at this revelation, pieces falling into place.
Mimi's eyes fill with tears, her voice breaking as she continues. “Joe was getting too deep, Sara, and he got a target put on his back, and they went after him. They wanted to know everything about him, and they found out about you, how much he cared about you. I saw him one last time when he mentioned briefly he was going to come clean to you and ask you to leave with him, right before he died.”
I don’t tell her I already know all of this.
“Why wouldn’t you fucking tell me?” The words feel impossible leaving my lips.
Mimi swallows, tears streaming down her face. “I had this awful feeling they killed him. After that night, I couldn’t find any trace of him, and then they confirmed his motorcycle accident… But I know it was murder. Telling you everything seemed pointless. You were already so broken, and I was lost after he died. Then, when I saw you at the club with Liam, I thought maybe he knew something, but I still couldn't tell you anything. Then you asked about the games, and I froze. I thought maybe you and Liam were trying to finish what Joe started. So, I hacked in again and got you an invitation. I've also hacked to be on thelist of performers and have been getting some girls out until I got caught tonight.”
My throat tightens as her words sink in. “So, you were trying to help the whole time?”
“I've gotten five girls out so far,” she says, a hint of pride breaking through her fear.
“But why would you introduce me with my real name, if you knew what this was!”
“That night, I realized you were on the list already, and they had pictures of you, Sara. If they caught you coming under my name, I was going to be flagged. I had to save more girls.”
“You put me in danger,” I say flatly.
“You had already been in danger!” She sobs with regret. “And why aren’t you more surprised?” she asks, her eyes scanning me.
“Because Joe isn’t dead,” I tell her, fury in my eyes.
“What? What do you mean?” Mimi chokes, and her body trembles.
“He’s not dead, Mimi, but we might as well be. Did you tell Liam where we are?”
“I didn’t have—” Her words get cut off when the door of the cabin swings open, and the two men who stand before us are the last ones we expect to see.
Forty-Five
Sara
Confusion.
Confusion is the best way to describe it, and that’s being polite. The footsteps approaching Mimi and I belong to none other than Charles and Joe. They stare up at us in a blond stupor, both breathtakingly handsome, their faces twisted with pride.
“What is this, Joe?” Mimi gasps, thrashing against her wrists tied up. Tears in her bright blue eyes, she looks ravaged… and something tells me I didn’t get the entire story of their poker mission…
“Hi, Mimi…” Joe says with a smirk and a shy wave.
“I’m going to need you to explain what the fuck is going on, Joe. Right now.” I bark sitting on the bed, my wrists screaming to be released.
He chuckles and looks at Charles, and then back to us, “Things got a little…” He makes a rotating gesture of his fingers against his temple to say it’s looney tunes, and I can’t read him. I don’t think I’ve ever known him, and I’m gutted.
“How did you get on the boat, Joe?” Mimi asks.
“The same way you did,” he says, his thumb grazing his lip, “except it was a little more cooperative. Right Charles? He and I actually made a deal, but you’ll find out soon enough.”
“Stop it with your stupid Morse code, Joe!” I hiss in anger, the temperature in my veins raising to a level where I might lose my goddamn mind. “Was any of it real? Any of it?” I ask, my voice breaking as waves of incomprehension take over me.
